{{Short description|Irish-born British statesman}} {{Update-EB|date=March 2020}} {{Use British English|date=October 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = [[The Right Honourable]] | name = The Earl Cairns | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|PC}} | image = Hugh Cairns, 1st Earl Cairns - 1860s.jpg | image_size = | office1 = [[Lord Chancellor]] | term_start1 = 29 February 1868 | term_end1 = 1 December 1868 | monarch1 = [[Queen Victoria|Victoria]] | prime_minister1 = [[Benjamin Disraeli]] | predecessor1 = [[Frederic Thesiger, 1st Baron Chelmsford|The Lord Chelmsford]] | successor1 = [[William Wood, 1st Baron Hatherley|The Lord Hatherley]] | term_start2 = 21 February 1874 | term_end2 = 21 April 1880 | monarch2 = Victoria | prime_minister2 = The Earl of Beaconsfield | predecessor2 = [[Roundell Palmer, 1st Earl of Selborne|The Lord Selborne]] | successor2 = The Lord Selborne | birth_date = {{birth date|1819|12|27|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Cultra]], County Down, Ireland | death_date = {{death date and age|1885|04|2|1819|12|27|df=y}} | death_place = [[Bournemouth]], Hampshire, England | party = [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] | alma_mater = [[Trinity College Dublin]] | spouse = {{Marriage |Mary Harriet MacNeile |1856}} | children = 7 }}
'''Hugh McCalmont Cairns, 1st Earl Cairns''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|PC}} (27 December 1819 – 2 April 1885) was an Anglo-Irish statesman who served as [[Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain]] during the first two ministries of [[Benjamin Disraeli]]. He was one of the most prominent [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] statesmen in the [[House of Lords]] during this period of [[Victorian era|Victorian]] politics. He served as the seventeenth [[Chancellor of the University of Dublin]] between 1867 and 1885.
==Background and education== Cairns was born at [[Cultra]], [[County Down]], Ireland. His father, William Cairns, formerly a [[Captain (land)|captain]] in the [[47th Regiment of Foot|47th regiment]], came from a family of Scottish origin which moved to Ireland around 1715. Hugh Cairns was the second son, and was educated at [[Belfast Academy]] and at [[Trinity College Dublin]], graduating with a senior moderatorship in [[classics]] in 1838.<ref name=EB1911/><ref>''[[Alumni Dublinenses]]: a register of the students, graduates, professors and provosts of [[Trinity College Dublin|Trinity College in the University of Dublin]] (1593–1860)'', [[George Dames Burtchaell]], [[Thomas Ulick Sadleir]] p. 125: Dublin, Alex Thom and Co, 1935.</ref> In 1844, he was called to the Bar by the [[Middle Temple]], to which he had moved from [[Lincoln's Inn]].<ref name=EB1911/>
==Legal and political career== During his first years at the [[Court of Chancery|Chancery]] Bar, Cairns showed little eloquence. He was so slow and diffident that he feared for his legal career. However, in 1852, he entered [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|parliament]] as member for [[Belfast (UK Parliament constituency)|Belfast]], and he became a [[Queen's Counsel|QC]] in 1856. In 1858, Cairns was appointed [[Solicitor General for England and Wales|Solicitor-General]] and was [[Knight Bachelor|knight]]ed.<ref>[https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG131587 Profile], britishmuseum.org. Accessed 10 January 2022.</ref>
In May of that year, he made two of his most brilliant and best-remembered speeches in the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]]. In the first, he defended the action of [[Edward Law, 1st Earl of Ellenborough|Lord Ellenborough]], who, as [[President of the Board of Control]], had not only censured [[Lord Canning]] for a proclamation issued by him as [[Governor-General of India]] but had made public the despatch in which the censure was conveyed. On the other occasion referred to, Cairns spoke in opposition to [[Lord John Russell]]'s amendment to the motion for the second reading of the government [[Reform Bill]], winning the approval of [[Benjamin Disraeli]]. Disraeli's appreciation found an opportunity for displaying itself some years later, when in 1868 he invited him to be Lord Chancellor in the brief [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] administration which followed [[Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby|Lord Derby's]] resignation of the party leadership. Meanwhile, Cairns had maintained his reputation in debate, both when his party was in power and when it was in opposition.<ref name=EB1911/>
In 1866, Lord Derby, returning to office, appointed Cairns [[Attorney General for England and Wales|Attorney General]], and in the same year he had availed himself of a vacancy to seek the comparative rest of the [[Courts of England and Wales|Court of Appeal]]. While a Lord Justice he had been offered a peerage, and though at first unable to accept it, he had finally done so when a relative provided the means necessary for the endowment of a title. The appointment of '''Baron Cairns''' as Lord Chancellor in 1868 meant superseding [[Frederic Thesiger, 1st Lord Chelmsford|Lord Chelmsford]], an act apparently carried out by Disraeli with little tact. Chelmsford declared that he had been sent away with less courtesy than if he had been a butler, but the testimony of [[James Howard Harris, 3rd Earl of Malmesbury|Lord Malmesbury]] is that the affair was the result of an understanding arrived at when Lord Chelmsford took office. Disraeli held office on this occasion for only a few months. In 1869, Cairns succeeded Lord Malmesbury as the leader of the Conservative opposition in the [[House of Lords]].<ref name=EB1911/> [[File:Lord Cairns LC by LC Dickinson.jpg|thumb|left|Lord Cairns as Lord Chancellor, by [[Lowes Cato Dickinson]]]] He had distinguished himself in the Commons by his resistance to the [[Roman Catholics Oath Bill]] brought in 1865; in the Lords, his efforts on behalf of the [[Church of Ireland]] were equally strenuous. His speech on [[Gladstone]]'s Suspensory Bill was afterwards published as a pamphlet, but the attitude which he and the peers who followed him had taken up, in insisting on their amendments to the preamble of the bill, was one difficult to maintain, and Lord Cairns made terms with [[Granville George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville|Lord Granville]] in circumstances which precluded his consulting his party first. He issued a circular to explain his action. The incident appears to have demonstrated his statesmanship, for he secured concessions which would have been irretrievably lost by continued opposition. Not long after this, Lord Cairns resigned the leadership of his party in the upper house, but resumed it in 1870 and opposed the Irish Land Bill in that year. Upon the Conservatives' return to power in 1874, he again became Lord Chancellor; in 1878 he was created '''Viscount Garmoyle''' and '''Earl Cairns'''; and, in 1880, his party went out of office.<ref name=EB1911/>
In opposition he did not take as prominent a part as previously, but when Disraeli (by then created [[Earl of Beaconsfield]]) died in 1881, there were some Conservatives who considered that his claim to lead the party was better than that of [[Lord Salisbury]]. His health, never robust, had for many years shown intermittent signs of failing. He had periodically made enforced retirements to the Riviera, and for many years had had a house at [[Bournemouth]], where he died.<ref name=EB1911/>
Lord Cairns was a great supporter of [[Barnardo's]] and was called upon by Dr. [[Thomas John Barnardo]] to open his first girl's home at [[Barkingside]], [[Ilford]], Essex, on 9 July 1876. Today Cairns house still stands on the one remaining green at Barkingside which was built by the children of England in memory of the First President of Dr Barnardo's Homes, The Right Honourable Earl Cairns. Cairns House was officially opened 6 August 1887.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}
==Legacy== [[File:At Lincoln's Inn 2023 015.jpg|thumb|left|Bust at Lincoln's Inn]] [[Image:Cairns1.JPG|thumb|Lord Cairns in the 1860s]] His influence upon the legislation of the day was largely felt where questions affecting religion and the [[Church of England|Church]] were involved and in matters peculiarly affecting his own profession. His power was felt, as has been said, both when he was in office and when his party was in opposition. He had been chairman of the committee on judicature reform, and although he was not in office when the [[Judicature Acts]] were passed, all the reforms in the legal procedure of his day owed much to him. He took part, when out of office, in the passing of the [[Married Women's Property Act 1882]], and was directly responsible for the [[Conveyancing Acts]], and for the [[Settled Land Act]]. Many other statutes in which be was largely concerned might be quoted. His judgments are to be found in the Law Reports and those who wish to consider his oratory should read the speeches above referred to, or that delivered in the [[House of Lords]] on the [[Compensation for Disturbance Bill]] in 1880, and his memorable criticism of Mr Gladstone's policy in the [[South African Republic|Transvaal]], after [[Majuba Hill]].<ref name=EB1911/>
==Family== Lord Cairns married, in 1856, Mary Harriet, eldest daughter of John MacNeile, of [[County Antrim]], by whom he had five sons and two daughters:<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Cairns, Hugh McCalmont Cairns, 1st Earl|volume=4|pages=952–953}}</ref>
* Hugh Cairns (died 1858), died in infancy * Lady Lilias Charlotte Cairns (1860–1889), married Rev. Henry Nevile Sherbrooke * [[Arthur Cairns, 2nd Earl Cairns|Arthur William Cairns]] (1861–1890), 2nd Earl Cairns * [[Herbert Cairns, 3rd Earl Cairns|Herbert John Cairns]] (1863–1905), 3rd Earl Cairns * [[Wilfred Cairns, 4th Earl Cairns|Wilfred Dallas Cairns]] (1865–1946), 4th Earl Cairns * Douglas Halyburton Cairns (1867–1936), married Lady Constance Anne Montagu Douglas Scott, daughter of [[William Montagu Douglas Scott, 6th Duke of Buccleuch]] * Lady Kathleen Mary Cairns (1870–1939), married Archdeacon [[Edward Eliot (priest)|Edward Eliot]]
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Hugh Cairns, 1st Earl Cairns}} *{{UK National Archives ID}} *{{Hansard-contribs | sir-hugh-cairns | the Earl Cairns }}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{succession box | title = Member of Parliament for [[Belfast (UK Parliament constituency)|Belfast]] | with = [[Richard Davison (politician)|Richard Davison]] (until 1860) | with2 = [[Samuel Gibson Getty]] (from 1860) | years = [[1852 United Kingdom general election|1852]]–1866 | before = [[Lord John Chichester]] | before2 = [[Robert James Tennent]] | after = [[Samuel Gibson Getty]] | after2 = [[Charles Lanyon]] }} {{s-legal}} {{succession box | before=[[Sir Henry Singer Keating]] | title=[[Solicitor General for England and Wales|Solicitor General]] | years=1858–1859 | after=[[Sir Henry Singer Keating]]}} {{succession box | before=[[Sir Roundell Palmer]] | title=[[Attorney General for England and Wales|Attorney General]] | years=1866 | after=[[Sir John Rolt]]}} {{s-off}} {{succession box | before=[[Frederic Thesiger, 1st Baron Chelmsford|The Lord Chelmsford]] | title=[[Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain]] | years=1868 | after=[[William Wood, 1st Baron Hatherley|The Lord Hatherley]]}} {{succession box | before=[[Roundell Palmer, 1st Earl of Selborne|The Lord Selborne]] | title=[[Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain]] | years=1874–1880 | after=[[Roundell Palmer, 1st Earl of Selborne|The Lord Selborne]]}} {{s-ppo}} {{succession box | title=[[Leader of the Conservative Party in the House of Lords|Leader of the Conservative Party<br>in the House of Lords]] | before=[[James Harris, 3rd Earl of Malmesbury|The Earl of Malmesbury]] | after=[[Charles Gordon-Lennox, 6th Duke of Richmond|The Duke of Richmond]] | years=1869–1870}} {{s-aca}} {{succession box | before=[[William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse|3rd Earl of Rosse]] |title=[[Chancellor of the University of Dublin]] | years= 1868–1885 | after=[[4th Earl of Rosse]] }} {{s-reg|uk}} {{s-new | creation | rows = 2 }} {{s-ttl | title = [[Earl Cairns]] | years = 1878–1885}} {{s-aft | after=[[Arthur Cairns, 2nd Earl Cairns|Arthur Cairns]] | rows = 2 }} {{s-ttl | title = [[Baron Cairns]] | years = 1867–1885 }}
{{s-end}} {{Lord chancellors}} {{Conservative Party (UK)}} {{Leaders of the Opposition UK}} {{First Disraeli Ministry}} {{Authority control}}
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